Wednesday 12 October 2016 11:41 am

Watch out Spotify? Amazon’s music streaming service has arrived

By: Lynsey Barber

Amazon will give Spotify and Apple a run for their money in the world of music streaming with the launch of a long-rumoured streaming service.

Amazon Music Unlimited will offer access to music for as little as $3.99 (£3.26) per month in the US and is incorporating the service into its Prime offering, which already gives customers a vast array of services such as delivery and video streaming.

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For users not signed up to Prime, it will be priced at $9.99, exactly that of Spotify and Apple Music.

That will go down to $7.99 for Prime subscribers, while the $3.99 price is reserved for those subscribing via Amazon Echo, its smarthome speaker with AI voice assistant.

The addition of music streaming to Echo adds another string to its bow in a bid to create the smart home of the future as it faces new competition from Google which last week launched its own voice activated home speaker. 

"The first phase of growth (in music streaming) was driven almost entirely by smartphones. We believe pretty strongly that the next phase of growth in streaming is going to come from the home," said Amazon Music vice president Steve Boom, in an interview with Reuters.

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But, by wrapping it up under the Prime banner at a cheaper price, it's just another reason for people to sign up to the monthly subscription service which is priced at £79 per month in the UK and includes a host of benefits.

It will also launch a family subscription in the coming months, letting a number of different users sign up collectively for less – $14.99 for six people. That's the same as Spotify and Apple Music.

The service is initially available in the US only, but will roll out to the UK, Germany and Austria by the end of the year.

Amazon Music, Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer and Tidal subscription prices compared